Picturing difference: discourses of disability in illustrated children's stories by parents of autistic children

This article presents a preliminary report on some of the outcomes of Scope's In the Picture, a research project assessing the best way to include and promote the representation of disabled children and their concerns in children's literature. A short review of a much larger project, this article draws upon ethnographic data to present the aspects of the project relating to the representation of autism in children's texts. The article recounts the observations made of the tensions inherent in trying to mediate between the multiple and often contradictory objectives of the various stakeholders in such projects.